Pictured: Some of the JABSOM team helping at the Kapiʻolani Women’s Center “See, Test & Treat” event.

University of Hawaiʻi Pathology residents — including John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) alumna Alana Taniguchi (JABSOM MD 2016) — helped Kapiʻolani Women’s Center and Clinical Laboratories of Hawaiʻi put together a free breast cancer and cervical cancer screening event that served nearly 50 women this month. Hosting this event was the brainchild of Dr. Taniguchi, who had a major role in its organization.

The JABSOM volunteers included more than half of the UH Pathology Program Residents, Pathology Faculty Karen Thompson, MD (Chair) and Jeff Killeen, MD, along with a handful of OB-GYN Residents led by Dr. Ann Chang, Associate Program Director, with several JABSOM OBGYN clinical faculty members and Dr. Laura Peterson, a surgery clinical faculty member. Also on hand, MD students from the second, third and fourth-year classes and several MD students from the Homeless Outreach and Medical Education (HOME) Project who performed Blood pressure and glucose screening, supervised by Family Medicine’s Dr. Jill Omori. Dr. Lee Buenconsejo-Lum, head of JABSOM Graduate Medical Education, was there representing Family Medicine and Community Health, too. Dr. Sasha Raymond, (JABSOM MD 2013) an alumna of the ʻImiHoʻōla Post-Baccalaureate Program, JABSOM, and the UH Pathology Residency Program read the pap smears. (The volunteers — in other words — were evidence of how Hawaiʻi‘s physician workforce is filled with graduates of the JABSOM medical school, Residency Programs and/or who serve as faculty.)

Photos courtesy of Dr. Karen Thompson.

According to Hawaiʻi Pacific Health, the event was held through a grant from the College of American Pathologists (CAP) Foundation as part of the See, Test & Treat program. The free cancer screening and health education program is designed to remove barriers to early cancer detection in underserved populations and to empower women to take charge of their own health and well-being.

Dr. Buenconsejo-Lum said the results were a great collaborative effort with mostly positive feedback, from key community members and healthcare partners.